


Wrong Place

by Doylebaby



Category: Actor RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1438978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doylebaby/pseuds/Doylebaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hugh and Orlando find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wrong Place

**Wrong Place**

The sound of a shot reverberated through the bank and people screamed in shock.

Orlando dropped to his knees beside Hugh, pulling his shirt over his head and pressing it against Hugh’s side, frantically trying to stop the bleeding. “I could kill you for being so stupid!” he hissed to his lover, keeping his shirt pressed hard against the wound in Hugh’s side with shaking hands.

“Yeah, sure, go ahead... Kick a man when he’s already down!” Hugh gasped in pain. 

“Fuck, Hugh, why did you have to play the hero?” Orlando whispered back a little too loudly, drawing the attention of one of the robbers.

“Shut up over there, or do I have to kill someone first!” The man turned, pointing his automatic weapon at the group huddled together in a corner, directed there earlier by the robbers. 

Orlando held up a bloody hand in silent apology, not wanting to aggravate the man any further. He’d already shot Hugh, because of that stupid bitch screeching her head off, Orlando didn’t want to be the cause of more shooting.

He stroked Hugh’s hair unconsciously as he looked over his shoulder at the woman who now sat quietly between two other hostages. 

 

When the five men had entered the bank, they’d taken out the security guard with a blow to the head.

Their leader barked that they wanted money and fast, he was armed with a pistol and a rifle, to show they were serious.

Most of the clients inside the bank had been smart enough to seek cover, but this one woman just froze in place and started screaming like a banshee. 

Hugh had tried to calm her down, but she wouldn’t shut up, Orlando shook his head in disgust. 

Rattled by the noise she was making, one of the more nervous robbers had turned and shot in her direction, hitting Hugh instead. 

 

“Stop blaming her,” Hugh murmured, a fine sheen of sweat covering his pale face. “She’s scared shitless.”

Orlando growled. “Yeah, and so are the rest of us! She got you shot and you’re losing a lot of blood.”

Hugh put his own hand over Orlando’s on the wound, ignoring the blood that was slowly seeping through, soaking Orlando’s shirt. “Don’t worry, love, I’ll be fine,” he said softly, not convincing Orlando for a minute.

Unfortunately his soft words were overheard by the agitated robber keeping an eye on their group. “Did you hear that, Gary, they’re poofters!” 

The leader – named Gary obviously – hurried over and pistol whipped him against the side of the head. The man slid to the floor soundlessly. “No names, you bloody fool!” he roared in anger. 

The sudden outburst of violence made people gasp in fear and even his fellow robbers reacted. “What the fuck, Gar-” one of the others started, before closing his mouth with a snap. 

“I thought you said this was going to be a piece of cake,” a third one hissed, advancing on Gary. “In and out, remember, Gary? No shooting, just threatening. No mess, right? If anything goes wrong it’s your doing!” 

“Uh-oh,” Orlando muttered and as unobtrusively as possible he grabbed Hugh under his arms and tried to drag him backwards, out of the line of fire. It was useless though, Hugh gasped in pain and Orlando realized he couldn’t move his lover on his own without hurting him more than he already did. 

Hugh’s situation was swiftly deteriorating. Orlando could see his breathing was laboured and he wished there was something more he could do for his lover, but he was helpless. Hugh needed to go to hospital immediately. 

The robbers in the meantime continued to argue and it turned quite heated.

One of the men who had stayed by the door suddenly whistled. “The coppers are here!”

“Shitshitshit! How the hell did they get here this fast?” The robber blaming their leader for the mess walked to the blinds covering the windows and peeked through them. “We’re not going to get out of here alive,” he groaned.

Gary, who had followed him, slapped the back of his head. “We’ve got hostages remember? He then turned to the people huddled together in the corner. “If you stay calm, no one else will get hurt,” he told them, holding up his weapon threateningly.

Orlando shook his head as he kept pressure on Hugh’s wound. “Hugh needs medical attention, he’s not going to make it otherwise.” He looked up at Gary who scowled at him. “Please don’t let him die...”

“If that bloke dies, we’re murderers, Gary. I for one ain’t going down for murder.” One of the robbers who had stayed quiet during most of the robbery stepped forward now and spoke with agitation, pointing at Hugh. 

Gary’s eyes narrowed at the man’s words. His leadership was falling apart fast. Before he could react, one of the hostages spoke up, a construction worker still wearing his helmet.

“Negotiate with them, mate.” He motioned with his head to the outside world. “It’s your best chance… and ours,” he added quietly.

Gary stomped away and the hostages all seemed to be holding their breath. Had the man gone too far?

“You!” Gary pointed at a very scared bank employee. “Dial 999. Tell them we need an ambulance; also tell them we want to negotiate with that lot out there.”

Some of the tension in the hostages eased in relief and Orlando stroked Hugh’s face. “Not long now, love, hang on. Please!” 

Hugh moaned and reached for Orlando who took his lover’s hand and held on tightly, hoping help would arrive swiftly. 

While the phone call was being made, another bank employee was allowed to hand out water to the hostages and her colleagues and Orlando gratefully accepted the plastic cup and with the help from the construction worker who supported Hugh, he managed to give the severely weakened man a sip of water. 

“Can’t give you more, love, you probably need surgery,” he whispered when Hugh indicated he wanted more water. Orlando proceeded to wet Hugh’s lips and cooled his flushed face a little. 

 

Orlando's world narrowed to just Hugh and himself. They hadn't been together very long, but for both of them it had been love at first sight, after having been introduced to each other by Orlando's brother Eric, who had been bragging about his success as a matchmaker ever since.

 

“The ambulance is outside now, Gary,” said the man keeping an eye on things through the blinds. 

At that moment the phone on the counter started to ring and Gary pointed at the bank manager to pick up the phone. The man answered and briefly listened and then held out the phone at the leader of the gang. “It's for you, a negotiator from the police.”

Gary grabbed the receiver out of the startled man's hand and barked into the phone. “What?!” 

He grimaced and shook his head. “No, no deal. _I_ make the deals here.”

Orlando winced and feared it was going to be too late for Hugh. “Please, give them something... anything to show you are willing...” he bravely suggested, before ducking his head as one of the other robbers pointed his rifle at him. 

“’s okay, luv,” Hugh mumbled. “I'm fine...” His face was ghastly white and clammy and he was shivering. 

“Fine,” Gary snapped into the phone. “The wounded guy and one other, that's all you're getting.” And he banged the receiver back down. 

“Get ready!” he growled at Orlando. 

“We'll have you out of here soon, Hugh,” Orlando whispered in his lover's ear. 

It took another ten minutes before the paramedics walked up to the building with a stretcher. 

Gary had one of the bank employees open the door, so that if the police would take a pot shot at them, they would hit an innocent hostage, instead of one of the robbers.

The two paramedics quickly reached Hugh and carefully lifted him on the stretcher, hooking him up to the equipment as fast as they could. Their faces portrayed their unease, which was quite understandable. 

“We'll stabilize him outside,” one of them told the closest robber. 

Once again the robbers had a bank employee open the door.

Orlando clutched Hugh’s hand as the paramedics pushed the stretcher to the door, before they could leave, Gary stopped them and pointed at Orlando. “Not you. You're staying with us,” he ordered.

“What?” Orlando said shocked. “No, please, let me go with him, I-”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“You said 'one other',” Orlando begged Gary.

Gary pointed at the woman who had been screaming her head off and got Hugh shot. “You! Out!” 

The woman stood and hurried to the door and Orlando could do nothing but shake his head in dismay, furious at the decision of the robber. Of all people, he let _her_ go.

“We really have to go, sir,” one of the paramedics told Orlando, there was always the chance that the robbers would change their mind. “We're taking him to St. Francis.”

Orlando nodded and he pressed a kiss to Hugh’s forehead before releasing his hand and he watched as they wheeled his lover out the door and to the ambulance in great haste. The woman following them was detained by a police officer briefly before she was led to the ambulance as well.

There was nothing Orlando could do however, but comply with Gary's orders. 

“Now get back there with the others,” the robber ordered him.

“Could I please wash… ” he started, holding up his bloodied hands, but he received a push in the back with Gary’s weapon. 

“Back to the others!” the man growled.

Orlando shuffled back to the other hostages, suddenly aware of his semi-nakedness, after using his shirt for Hugh’s wound. 

“Come and sit here, dear.” An elderly woman patted the floor beside her. She produced a couple of paper hankies and was handed a bottle of water by one of the other hostages and started to clean Orlando’s hands from Hugh’s blood. 

“Thank you,” Orlando smiled at her tiredly.

“Here you go, lad,” the blond construction worker handed him his own checked button down shirt and Orlando shrugged into it gratefully, leaving the man in just a t-shirt, but it didn't seem to bother him. 

“What's your name, dear?” the elderly woman asked Orlando to distract him.

“Orlando,” he replied, dragging his eyes away from the door through which Hugh had been wheeled away. 

“Mine is Marie, and that...” She nodded at the construction worker. “Is Sean, he's been the one who kept all of us calm,” she said with a smile at Sean. “Just follow his lead, dear,” she told Orlando and patted his knee.

Confused, Orlando just nodded, his thoughts focused on his wounded lover. Would he ever see Hugh alive again?

 

“Now what, Gary? Did you make any other arrangements?” one of the robbers asked their leader. They gathered around him rather threateningly, clearing indicating they wanted out of there as soon as possible. 

At that moment the phone rang again and the bank manager reached for it, but Gary was quicker. His men came closer, wanting to be certain Gary did what was in their best interest, including the man who had been watching the front of the bank through the blinds.

Gary smirked at them. “They will have to give in to my terms now, you'll see, we'll get out of here with the money and tomorrow...”

The robbers laughed and seemed very confident of getting out of the bank without any problem. 

 

The hostages on the other hand were less than confident. The robbers’ attitudes could cost lives.

 _Their_ lives. 

Sean motioned for people to get closer together. “If anything happens, keep your head down,” he murmured. “Don't jump up, just _stay_ down, no matter what.” 

The others nodded, looking fearfully at the men huddling around the phone, seeming to forget they had a bank full of frightened people. 

Gary finally decided to talk to the negotiator and he was cocky and self-assured. “You've seen my good will, now get me a car and a-”

Without anyone having noticed, or if any of the hostages had, they kept quiet, the door had been opened and three smoking devices were rolled over the floor into the bank and within seconds large clouds of smoke filled the room. 

People started to cough and at the same time the door was kicked open and armed men rushed inside. 

“On the floor! Everyone on the floor!” One of them shouted. “Throw away your weapons!” 

They could hear the loud clatter of weapons being dropped to the floor.

Orlando had, at the moment he'd heard the noise, stupidly attempted to jump up, unable to help himself and was now being held down by Sean, who had immediately yanked him back to the floor, hissing: “Wake up, lad, before you get yourself killed!” 

“I'm sorry,” Orlando mumbled, feeling more than a little dazed. Now that the adrenalin that had rushed through his body while he had to take care of Hugh was wearing off, his main fear was being shot and killed and not ever seeing Hugh again. 

“You're shaking,” Sean muttered, obviously feeling the tremors that ran through Orlando's body. 

“I can't seem to stop,” Orlando admitted. 

The smoke prevented them from seeing what was going on, so when two boots suddenly appeared in front of them, Orlando let out an undignified squeak.

It turned out to be a special task force officer, apologising for scaring them. “I'm looking for a Sean Bean?” he said.

“You've found him,” Sean said pushing himself into an upright position and pulling Orlando up with him.

“We've arrested five men; can you confirm there were five robbers?”” the officer asked Sean.

Sean nodded. “Yes, that's correct.”

The man immediately relayed a message through his radio and then motioned for them to stand up. “We can now safely escort you out of here,” he told them.

Orlando had only one thing on his mind. “Do you... do you know how Hugh is? Has he survived? Please tell me that he's alright!” 

The man looked at him blankly. “Hugh? I'm sorry I don't know—”

Panic overtook Orlando. “He's dead isn't he?” he whispered. “Did he die on his way to hospital, or in surgery? Where is he now? Please tell me I can see him... Say goodbye to him.” He was on the verge of falling apart. 

The officer held up his hands. “Sir, please try to stay calm. Come this way; let's get you out of here first.”

Sean gently shook Orlando and then put his arm around his shoulders comfortingly. “Orlando, calm down. This is special task force; these guys are here to free us. Someone in charge might know how Hugh is. Let's follow him out of here and find out, shall we?” 

Completely numb, unable to think straight, Orlando merely nodded and let Sean guide him out of the building, the other hostages following behind them, shielded by the armed men.

Outside they were quickly led to a hotel across the street, where a medical team was standing by to check them all out. 

Orlando sat waiting for his turn with a blanket around him as someone provided the hostages with hot tea. He and Sean had been separated as someone who seemed to be in charge had come to get the construction worker for a 'debriefing' as he had called it.

Sean had patted Orlando's wrist and promised he would be back and together they would find out which hospital Hugh had been taken to and how he was doing. 

Orlando had asked everyone if they knew about Hugh's fate, but after a while, when no one seemed to know anything, he stopped asking and just sat and waited, his mind providing him with the most horrifying scenarios.

When it was finally Orlando's turn to see the doctors, he was in an apathetic state and when the medical staff discovered the blood on his clothes, he was examined thoroughly. 

Orlando couldn't be bothered telling them it wasn't his blood, the only thing that mattered was Hugh and he was dead, because no one had told him differently. 

Unable to discover any injuries on the young man, the doctor informed the man in charge of debriefing the hostages that he was physically alright and Orlando was taken to a small room to be questioned. 

Orlando decided to give it one last try. “Where's Hugh?” he asked the man sitting across from him. “Is he dead?'”

“Mr Bloom, is there someone we can call for you?” The man looked at him with compassion and Orlando knew then the news wasn't good. 

“He's dead isn't he?” he whispered. “I've lost him, haven't I?” 

“Mr Bloom, I—” The man was interrupted when the door opened and Sean walked in.

“Have you told him about his lover yet?” he asked the man at the table.

The man spread his hands. “I was about to, we need—”

Sean sighed in exasperation and crouched down beside Orlando's chair, his fingers under Orlando's chin turning Orlando's face until he could look into Sean's eyes. “Orlando, Hugh is _not_ dead.” He turned to the other man. “That's _all_ he needs to know right now.” 

“That's not how—” The man started to say, but he was once again interrupted, this time by Orlando.

“N-not dead?” he whispered. “Are you sure?” He looked at Sean pleadingly. 

“I'm sure,” Sean smiled. “Now is there anyone you need to call?”

“I don't...” Orlando shook his head, unable to think straight, then... “Eric!” he gasped; remembering he'd turned his mobile off in case it would startle the robbers. He pulled it out of his pocket and found several messages from his brother, getting more frantic when he didn't hear back from Orlando. 

Eric had known of their venture into town, and Hugh needing to take care of some business at the bank and in all likelihood Eric would've heard a robbery had taken place. 

He quickly dialled his brother's number and after assuring Eric a couple of times that he was okay, he asked him to meet them at St. Francis Hospital, where they had taken Hugh.

~ * ~ 

“How come you were able to arrange this?” Orlando asked, waving at the police car that was taking them to the hospital. “And how were you able to find out about Hugh, while I couldn't find anyone who could tell me anything?” He was just a little suspicious.

Sean smirked. “I'm nothing but a construction worker, Orlando. Just one who sent a text message to 999 – it's possible if you know how that works – when the robbery started. After they verified that the call was genuine, I stayed in contact with the police all the time.” He told Orlando. “That's how I knew they were going to try and come in when Gary and his gang were distracted by the phone call and I was able to let them know _when_ it was the right moment.”

Orlando cocked his head. “Okay. Good thinking,” he agreed. “But what about Hugh?” Orlando persisted. 

Sean shrugged. “The guy in charge wanted to speak to me, figuring I had my wits about me and could give evidence. I first asked them to let you know how Hugh was doing though. That idiot in there...” he pointed over his shoulder. “Was supposed to do that, but he wanted to follow 'proper procedure'.” Sean rolled his eyes. 

At that moment they arrived at the hospital and the police officer parked the car and escorted them inside, where an irate Eric was pacing up and down in front of the reception desk agitatedly. 

As soon as he spotted Orlando, Eric grabbed him and hugged him tightly. “Thank God, you're alright!” he muttered relieved. 

Hugging his brother back, Orlando then carefully extracted himself from Eric's grip and gave him a small smile. “I need to know how Hugh is doing, Eric,” he explained to his brother. 

Together they walked to the reception and after explaining who they were, they were directed to Hugh's room. 

The police officer, told them he would wait for them outside and left. Orlando introduced Sean to his brother and then nothing could stop him from going to see Hugh. 

A doctor halted them however. “Are you Mr Jackman’s next of kin?” At Orlando's nod, he directed them to a couple of chairs in the corridor and asked them to sit there for a minute. 

“Mr Jackman is an extremely lucky man. His heart stopped twice. Once in the ambulance and once during surgery, but we managed to get it going again. He is still very weak and will have to stay here for a while, but I expect he will make a full recovery.”

 

With a slightly trembling hand, Orlando opened the door to Hugh's hospital room, afraid of what he would see. 

He gasped at the sight of Hugh hooked up to so many machines, all making beeping and pinging noises. 

Hugh's face was as pale as the white pillow behind his head. The only thing that indicated he was alive was the steady rise and fall of his chest.

As Orlando sat down in the chair beside Hugh's bed, he absently noted they had shaved all Hugh's chest hair, presumably for the operation. 

“Oh Hugh,” he murmured, reaching for his lover's hand and he couldn't help the silent tears that fell as he realized how close to death his lover had been. 

Orlando felt Hugh's fingers move and he quickly looked up to see that Hugh had opened his eyes. Unable to speak due to the breathing tube, he squeezed Orlando's hand, then his eyelashes fluttered and he closed his eyes again, it was enough for Orlando though.

He kissed Hugh's forehead. “I love you too,” he whispered.

The End


End file.
